FOYA Winners Shine at INTERPHEX 2011
This year, INTERPHEX was filled with hundreds of innovative exhibitors, but seven companies stood out as leaders of industry as winners of the Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA). MedImmune received an award for Project Execution for its Manufacturing Center Expansion, Building 636, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The large-scale mammalian-cell culture manufacturing facility is “probably in the top 10, in terms of size, ” according to a representative at MedImmune. The facility is designed for a wide range of output, the range follows a range of. 5 to 7 grams per liter. “What we did was actually work with our vendors for the various pieces of equipment to get them integrated into how we were going to approach automation, very early in the design process. ” Product integration was implemented early and that allowed the start up of the facility to have an efficient schedule.
F. Hoffman-La Roche designed a device called MyDose that won in the Process Innovation category. MyDose is a single-use infusion device that is a new platform for automatic drug delivery of high volume drugs to patients. The device can attribute its innovation to its distribution process. The drug is delivered through the device by adhering it to the patient, and when activated, a sterile needle penetrates the abdominal wall and administers the drug.
Merck and Co. Was awarded the Facility Integration award for its Global Clinical Supplies Manufacturing, Packaging, and Warehouse Expansion. The expansion of the GMP facility was designed to enhance its core drug product development, manufacturing and packaging capabilities. Several CGMP clinical manufacturing and packaging warehouse areas were consolidated into this one facility, increasing productivity and efficiency.
Other winners at FOYA included Novartis Vaccines who won for Equipment Innovation, for its “Mars Project, ” Pfizer Health AB, which earned the Operation Excellence award for “Project Pegasus, ” a Bio-7 manufacturing facility and Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland GmbH, which won in the Sustainability category for their “SPRING and E-MAP” projects.
Shire HGT earned an honorable mention for their Project Atlas, Building 400, the company’s third cell-culture facility.